1. Figures of Speech/Figurative Language
Figures of speech are tools that writers use to create images, or “paint pictures,” in your mind.
Similes, metaphors, and personification are three figures of speech that create imagery.
There are seven categories of figurative language. They are:
Imagery
Simile
Metaphor
Alliteration
Personification
Onomatopoeia
Hyperbole

2. Simile A simile compares two things using the words “like” or “as.”
Comparing one thing to another creates a vivid image.
(See next slide for example.)
The runner streaked like a cheetah.

3. Simile Example An emerald is as green as grass, A ruby red as blood;
Flint
An emerald is as green as grass,
A ruby red as blood;
A sapphire shines as blue as heaven;
A flint lies in the mud.
A diamond is a brilliant stone,
To catch the world’s desire;
An opal holds a fiery spark;
But a flint holds fire.
By Christina Rosetti

4. The winter wind is a wolf howling at the door.
Metaphor
A metaphor compares two things without using the words “like” or “as.”
Gives the qualities of one thing to something that is quite different.
(See next slide for example.)
The winter wind is a wolf howling at the door.

5. Metaphor Example The Night is a Big Black Cat
The moon is her topaz eye,
The stars are the mice she hunts at night,
In the field of the sultry sky.
By G. Orr Clark

6. Personification
Personification gives human traits and feelings to things that are not human – like animals or objects.
(See next slide for example.)
The moon smiled down at me.

7. Personification Example
From “Mister Sun”
Mister Sun
Wakes up at dawn,
Puts his golden
Slippers on,
Climbs the summer
Sky at noon,
Trading places
With the moon.
by J. Patrick Lewis